The present disclosure relates generally to thermal infrared imaging analysis, and more particularly to multi-mode imaging in the thermal infrared for chemical contrast enhancement.
Non-destructive screening of materials using infrared spectroscopy techniques serves many useful purposes. For instance, in quality control applications, non-destructive screening using infrared spectroscopy techniques can be used to detect the presence of various substances or defects in a sample. In further applications, infrared spectroscopy techniques can be used to detect the presence of blood or other biological fluids during forensic investigations.
Often times it is desirable to provide contrast between various substances. For instance, in forensic investigations, it can be desirable to readily distinguish blood or other biological fluid stains from other substances. In circumstances where substances have overlapping absorbance peaks, chemical contrast detection using infrared spectroscopy can pose many challenges. For instance, traditional infrared measurements of spectrally-overlapped chemical mixtures rely on spectroscopic measurements with multivariate statistics. These traditional methods can be experimentally complicated and can require time and significant expertise in chemometric analysis.
Thus, a need exists for a system and method for multi-mode imaging analysis in the thermal infrared that provides for chemical contrast enhancement where overlapping absorbance peaks are an issue.